One of the most serious problems to the environment is the damage caused by oil spills on the lakes, seas, and oceans. The amount of damage to the environment and the cost of clean-up increases dramatically if the oil is allowed to disperse over a wide area. As the oil disperses, the lightest components of spilled oil evaporate leaving a thick residue of gel or tar which is particularly difficult to clean-up. Thus it is important that oil removal devices are quickly deployable and are capable of removing both light oil components which float on top of the water and thick oil components which float below the water surface.
Oil, once skimmed from the water, must be stored for subsequent disposal. Storage is typically provided by barges towed to the vicinity of the oil spill. Since the total storage space on a barge is limited, it is important that the storage space be efficiently used. Thus, oil should be carefully separated from sea water, such that the barges store only oil and do not waste storage space storing sea water.
Various devices and methods have been developed for cleaning oil spills with varying degrees of success. Patented examples include: U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,847,816 (DiPerna); 4,182,679 (Van Hekle); 4,477,348 (Ayers et al); 4,372,854 (Szereday); 4,487,694 (Brandt et al); 4,514,299 (Ayroldi); 4,588,501 (Jordan); 4,690,093 (Lundin); 4,795,567 (Simpson et al); 4,921,605 (Bagnis et al). However, none of prior art techniques provide a quickly deployable oil skimmer capable of efficiently collecting spilled oil and separating the oil from sea water.